Rafael Devers is struggling in 2026 as the Giants sink deeper in the NL West

What happened

One year after a blockbuster deal moved Rafael Devers out of Boston and into a Giants uniform in exchange for a four-player package, FanGraphs is taking stock of how the trade has aged — and the verdict, per the piece, is not flattering for either club. The anniversary passed quietly on Monday, with both teams idle and, as FanGraphs noted with some relief, not actively adding to their records below .500.

The streamlined backstory, per FanGraphs, is that Boston's signing of third baseman Alex Bregman displaced Devers from his natural position, and a breakdown in communication between the front office and the player set the whole thing in motion. The result was a blockbuster that, one year on, has left both franchises looking for answers.

Why it matters

The Giants are carrying the heavier end of this particular log. Per FanGraphs, they have an expensive and apparently declining slugger on their books, and the 2026 season has done little to ease that concern. Devers, 29, has been productive in patches — FanGraphs specifically credits May as one very good month — but the stretches on either side of it have been described as miserable slumps. That kind of inconsistency is difficult to absorb on any roster; on a team already buried in the NL West standings, it compounds quickly.

The Red Sox, meanwhile, are not exactly celebrating. FanGraphs characterizes the deal as one that hasn't worked out well for either side, which is the kind of symmetrical disappointment that makes a trade genuinely interesting to revisit a year later. Boston parted with Devers and received a four-player package; the piece does not suggest that package has delivered the kind of return that would make the deal look shrewd in hindsight.

Is Devers the reason the Giants are struggling?

Per FanGraphs, Devers's slumps are described as "just part of the reason" the Giants are buried in the NL West — which is the publication's careful way of saying the problems run deeper than one player's bat. The Giants are not a team that can point to a single culprit and call it a diagnosis. What FanGraphs does make clear is that an expensive, apparently declining first baseman who surrounds one productive month with two poor stretches is not the profile of a player lifting a struggling club out of its difficulties.

The framing of "apparently declining" is worth preserving as exactly that — an apparent trend, not a clinical finding. FanGraphs is drawing a conclusion from the 2026 numbers and the broader arc, but the word "apparently" is doing real work in that sentence, and the desk is not in the business of stripping it out.

The numbers

The Giants' record sits at 65-97 (.401), good for fourth place in the NL West and 35 games back of the division lead. They are eliminated from both the division race and the Wild Card race, and they carry a five-game losing streak into their current road trip. In the Wild Card standings, they rank 11th, 23.0 games relative to the cut line — a number that does not invite optimism so much as it invites a quiet conversation about the offseason.

Where the club stands

San Francisco is, to put it plainly, in the part of the season where the schedule becomes a formality and the front office begins its real work. Eliminated from the division and the Wild Card, sitting 35 games back in the NL West, the Giants are playing out the string with a five-game losing streak in tow.

The upcoming schedule does not offer a soft landing. The Giants are in Atlanta for a series at Truist Park, with Adrian Houser and Carson Whisenhunt both listed as probable starters for Wednesday's games against Grant Holmes and JR Ritchie, respectively. Landen Roupp is the probable for Thursday against Martín Pérez. The Braves are not the kind of opponent a team in a five-game skid circles on the calendar as a reset opportunity.

What we don't know yet

FanGraphs's piece raises the question of trajectory without fully resolving it. "Apparently declining" is an observation, not a projection, and the piece does not specify what the Giants' options are with respect to Devers's contract or his role going forward. The four-player package Boston received in the deal is referenced but not evaluated in detail in the material at hand, so the full accounting of what the Red Sox got — and whether it has delivered — remains an open question beyond what FanGraphs has characterized as a mutually disappointing outcome.

Whether Devers can recapture the form that made him the centerpiece of a blockbuster deal is also, by definition, unresolved. One good month in 2026 suggests the ability is still present; two surrounding slumps suggest something is getting in the way. What that something is, FanGraphs does not specify in the material available here.

What to watch

The most immediate thing to monitor is whether the Giants' losing streak extends in Atlanta. Beyond the series, the larger question FanGraphs implicitly poses is how San Francisco manages the back half of a lost season with an expensive player whose 2026 performance has been uneven. A team 35 games out of first and eliminated from postseason contention is, by the calendar, in evaluation mode — and the Devers situation is the most prominent thing to evaluate.

On the Boston side, the anniversary of the deal is a natural moment for the Red Sox to take stock of what the four-player return has become. FanGraphs's characterization of the outcome as mutually disappointing suggests that accounting has not yet produced a clear winner — which, one year in, is its own kind of verdict.

The desk will note, without editorializing, that both teams were idle on the anniversary and both were below .500. Sometimes the baseball calendar has a sense of occasion.